Ali Mokdad, PhD, Professor of Global Health at IHME, received the 2011 Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) during the organization’s 66th Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, May 12-15, 2011.
AAPOR President Frank M. Newport presented the award to Dr. Mokdad and a group of researchers during the AAPOR’s Awards Banquet from on Saturday, May 14.
The award, named after a past president of AAPOR, honors Dr. Mokdad, Michael P. Battaglia, Martin R. Frankel, Michael W. Link, and Larry Osborn for their work in address-based sampling. The researchers devised this method, which uses residential mail delivery locations to randomly survey populations, as an effective alternative to random-digit dialing to collect survey data.
Dr. Mokdad first helped develop this innovative method while working at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and has continued to improve the method through his work at IHME. The Mitofsky award is considered one of the most prestigious in public health and is only given following a rigorous evaluation process by an independent group of survey researchers.
Dr. Mokdad is the co-Principal Investigator on the
Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions Study (MDCC), which uses address-based sampling to collect data to track disparities in chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health policies in reducing them. The MDCC is currently gathering 3,000 health data and survey responses from residents in King County, Washington, as part of a project designed to become a model for other counties around the country.
With more than 2,400 members, the American Association for Public Opinion Research is the largest association of public opinion researchers. Based in Deerfield, Illinois, AAPOR was founded in 1947.
